Biden Campaigns On Pandemic, Health Care Plans In Lead Up To Dueling Town Halls

CNN: Biden's Health Care Plan Strengthens Affordable Care Act As Trump Undermines It 
President Donald Trump is seeking to paint Joe Biden's health care plan as socialized medicine that would eliminate private insurance coverage. However, Biden has not swayed from his commitment to continue allowing private plans -- despite the pressure from the Democrats' progressive wing, which wants to put the federal government at the center of the nation's health care system, akin to Sen. Bernie Sanders' "Medicare for All" proposal. (Luhby, 10/15)

The New York Times: Biden’s Covid Response Plan Draws From F.D.R.’s New Deal 
Joseph R. Biden Jr. is preparing for the biggest challenge he would face if elected president — ending the coronavirus pandemic — by reaching back nearly a century to draw on the ideas of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose big-government policies lifted the country out of the Great Depression and changed the shape of America. With infection rates ticking back up in much of the country as the weather cools and social distancing becomes tougher, addressing the public health crisis could reach new levels of urgency by Inauguration Day. If current trends hold, as many as 400,000 Americans may have died from Covid-19 by then, recent projections show. (Goodnough and Gay Stolberg, 10/14)

AP: Dueling Town Halls For Trump, Biden After Debate Plan Nixed
President Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden will compete for TV audiences in dueling town hall meetings instead of meeting face-to-face for their second debate as originally planned. The two will take questions in different cities on different networks Thursday night: Trump on NBC from Miami, Biden on ABC from Philadelphia. Trump backed out of plans for the presidential faceoff originally scheduled for the evening after debate organizers shifted the format to a virtual event following Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis. (Miller, Barrow and Madhani, 10/15)

Also —

The Washington Post: Emboldened By His Covid-19 Recovery, Trump Pushes Return To Normalcy 
President Trump is using his recovery from covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, to reinforce the message that the pandemic is receding and Americans should return to work — resisting entreaties to change his tone and behavior three weeks ahead of the presidential election. Despite the outbreak at the White House that also infected the first lady, their son and nearly a dozen top aides, Trump and his allies continue to downplay the virus, arguing that the country is “turning the corner” and holding campaign events with thousands of supporters even as cases are increasing rapidly, especially in the Midwest. (Dawsey and Abutaleb, 10/14)

The Atlantic: Trump's COVID-19 Comments Hurt Victims' Families 
Losing a loved one to COVID-19 is devastating in much the same way losing someone to any illness is. There are stages of grief—periods of confusion, anger, and immense sadness. But for many families experiencing a coronavirus-related loss, another feeling is tangled up with all the others: a penetrating and persistent sense of regret. For Sabila Khan, whose father contracted COVID-19 at a short-term rehabilitation center, that regret takes the form of impossible what-ifs and if-onlys. What if they’d brought him home during the first week of March? she often wonders. What if she could have been there in the emergency room to advocate for him, as he waited three days for an open bed? ... There are thousands of Americans like Khan, for whom the past few months have been nothing less than a nightmare. (Godfrey, 10/15)

In state election news —

Stat: STAT Examination: Pharma Showers State Capitols With Campaign Cash
By the time Will Guzzardi, a state legislator in Illinois, called a vote on his controversial drug pricing reform bill, the crowd in the Springfield hearing room had suspiciously thinned. Three committee Democrats were suddenly missing, and, as a result, his bill failed by three votes. (Facher, 10/15)